Cloud computing has grown in popularity, allowing for remote processing and/or storage capability to be brought to bear on local processes. Cloud computing poses some risks—such as whether data and programs will be stolen and/or compromised by outside actors. Building an internal cloud structure may seem like it reduces risk, but may prevent the builder from realizing the economic and flexibility advantages more public computing clouds offer.
The security concerns that come with cloud computing, and public clouds especially, may be many and various. Some of the risks, such as directly taking over another entities' code and data, may have become more difficult due to cloud computing services directly monitoring for such activity, but more latent risks still persist. For example, side channel attacks have become a concern, and a side channel attack may allow an attacker to surreptitiously obtain data from a virtual machine without needing to hack the virtual machine. The side channel attack may allow an attacker to discern data from the target virtual machine by gaining access to memory locations the target virtual machine had previously used.